


A Time for Reflection

by sheisagenius



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Chemical Weapons, F/M, Gen, Highschool AU, Mental Instability, Multi, Quintis - Freeform, Waige - Freeform, more quintis than waige, self reflection, this takes place in 2020, thwarted death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:32:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheisagenius/pseuds/sheisagenius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Scorpion go undercover at a high school, but the case proves to be more significant than any of them thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time for Reflection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misfit_right_in](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misfit_right_in/gifts).



It was a warm, lazy day in September, the kind where it’s best to spend some time outside, and Ralph, Happy, and Toby were doing just that. They were up on the roof of the garage, Happy tinkering with her tools and Ralph pausing his studying every so often to ask her questions when he had them. Toby was sitting beside the two, legs kicked up onto the table as he poured over and picked apart journal articles he was reviewing.

The three were mostly silent, engrossed in their respective tasks until Toby yawned so hard that Happy looked over at him with a cocked eyebrow.

“What?” he said, bringing his feet down and tossing the papers in his hand on the table. “It’s been a long week. That last case was tedious. And it’s Friday.” Toby yawned again, pointing his finger to no one in particular. “A nice, sunny Friday where the warmth of the sun kind of makes you sleepy, you know?”

There was a hint of a smile on Happy’s face, but she said nothing as she turned back to the metal parts on the table. She was tired too, Toby could tell, and not just from the darker circles under her eyes.

Although this last case they had taken on hadn’t proven particularly difficult, it had been time consuming, taking them all of Monday through Thursday. Lots and lots of extensive software upgrades for a large security firm--more than Walt and Sly could complete by themselves before the deadline of the company-wide overhaul. So they had all worked tirelessly to complete everything, taking the opportunity now to devote some time to their individual projects and tasks.

Toby was still watching Happy, until out of the corner of his eye he caught Ralph yawning too.

“Ralph, your classes don’t start until the last week of the month, right? What are you working so hard on these few weeks of your summer?” Toby asked, looking at the now 14 year old genius with a smile.

Ralph set down his pen and calculator gently before looking up at Toby. “I’m reviewing the physics necessary for my Intro to Kinematics and Robotics class this fall. I made a plan for studying,” he held up a piece of paper with several lists written on it, “so I cover a little bit nearly every day and finish reviewing by the first day of class.”

“He’s an organized kid, Doc,” Happy chimed in, and Toby looked at her. “And dedicated.” She turned to Ralph, ruffling his hair and watching a smile appear on his face.

Toby opened his mouth, about to say something else when the three heard the door to the roof open. They turned around to see Paige walking towards them.

“Cabe’s downstairs. New case.” Paige sighed tiredly. The last thing any of them wanted was a new case at 3pm on a Friday afternoon.

 

* * *

 

“So let me make sure I heard correctly,” Sylvester said. “You need us to go undercover at a high school? He was wringing his hands nervously, no doubt from the implication of what going undercover at a high school would entail.

“Yes, son, you all have to go undercover. Getting to this Ford guy’s computer is how we figure out what he’s planning. And if it’s any consolation, I have to go undercover too. Also, it’s a STEM magnet high school.”

“It’s still a high school, whether it’s a STEM magnet or not. High schools are not good places.” Sly started messing with the bandaid on his left ring finger.

Cabe glanced around the table. Everyone in front of him had a disillusioned look on their face after hearing a few details of the new case. Even Paige, who Cabe thought would be at least a little bit more receptive, had a clear frown on her face.

The moment he had first mentioned they’d be going undercover at a high school, Cabe heard a chorus of grumbles and groans and sighs. He might have laughed at their reactions if it weren’t for the nature of the case.

“Look, I know you’re all tired and cranky after this week,” Cabe had a stern expression as his eyes moved from person to person. “Let’s just figure out how we’re going to pull this off. Monday is September 7, Labor Day so we’ll go in Tuesday morning and hopefully nab this chemistry and computer science guy by the time we leave. We’ll meet the principal and Ms. Olabamiji, the chemistry teacher. They’ll explain in more detail what they know. For now, let’s figure out how we’re going undercover so we all can get on with our three day weekend.” Cabe raised his eyebrows and everyone nodded in response.

Before Cabe spoke again, Walter cleared his throat. “I will be working on Monday regardless. So if you all want to come in, the garage will be--”

“Shut it, O’Brien,” Happy hissed, glaring at him and Walt closed his mouth, unsure if he wanted to finish his sentence. “They call it Labor Day for a reason.” Happy felt a soft pressure on her back then and turned to see Toby watching her, a half kind half pleading look on his face. It was enough to calm her down a bit and she looked back at her folder. “Ok, how do we do this?”

No one said a word in response, as if they all were still trying to process everything, but everyone looked over at Ralph the moment he chimed in.

“I could pretend to be a student there. I’m about the right age.”

 

* * *

 

The morning was balmy as the team walked up to the school’s double doors at 7:30am. Happy and Sly were right behind Cabe; Toby had slowed down a bit until he was next to Paige.

“You ready for this, Ms. Dineen?” There was a grin on Toby’s face and Paige rolled her eyes.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose. The pretending-to-be-interested-in-the-school part won’t be hard, it’s more knowing why we have to go undercover that’s troubling. Knowing that this guy is out there,” Paige gestures in front of her, “around kids.” She expected a quip or some other comment intended to lighten the situation from Toby, but his expression had gone serious and the little skip in his step at the excitement of going undercover had disappeared.

“I know.” Toby adjusted his hat before continuing. “Like I said earlier, even if this Ford guy used to be a university professor, even if he is off his rocker enough to do what Anita the other chem teacher thinks he might do, we’re smarter and we’ll get him. ”

Paige gave Toby a tentative smile and he patted her on the shoulder. “We always get the bad guys, Ms. Dineen.” She couldn’t help but feel a bit more confident about what they had to do as he sprinted off to catch up to Happy. Paige glanced over her shoulder and saw Walter explaining something to Ralph, smiles on both their faces. They didn’t look too worried either.

 

* * *

 

They were all packed inside the office of Principal Jones as he bureaucratically went over every single detail again, much to the chagrin of the geniuses since they already knew it all and just wanted to get on with the job.

Even Anita Olabamiji, the chemistry teacher who’d be helping them, looked exasperated at the principal’s need to spell everything out.

“Ok, just to be certain everyone knows what’s going on, let me go over things one last time.” Principal Jones spoke very clearly, as if he were talking to a room full of actual high schoolers. He gestured vaguely in front of him and if he hadn’t looked down at the folder on his desk as soon as he did, he might have seen Happy’s and Walter’s nearly synchronized eye rolls.

“Mike Ford, chemistry teacher and chair of the chemistry department, started to act strangely toward the end of last school year, according to Ms. Olabamiji,” he nodded at her curtly, “and she also says that this behavior has become more noticeable in the first weeks of this school year.”

Before he could continue, Anita interrupted him. “Less interaction with colleagues, and when he has spoken to us he’s been more brusque and just tense overall. Also less availability for his students. That kind of stuff.”

“Yes, as Ms. Olabamiji pointed out, Mr. Ford has been acting more strangely,” Principal Jones said, enunciating the end of his sentence deliberately slowly, as if he couldn’t fathom why it had been necessary for her to clarify his word choice. “She came and notified me of this, and while at first I didn’t think it was necessarily an issue to look into further, a student of his came by my office recently and also mentioned that they thought Mr. Ford was acting a little more weird than normal.”

“No wonder Anita doesn’t like this guy. He’s a snooty jackass who doesn’t listen to his employees’ valid concerns,” Toby muttered and Happy’s punch to his side was predictable. He groaned and this time Cabe turned to glare at him.

“One week ago, Ms. Olabamiji went to confirm some orders for the chemical storeroom with Mr. Ford at the end of the day during seventh period,” Principal Jones continued, “but neither he nor his personal belongings were in his classroom.”

Anita spoke up, “I looked under his desk to see if his briefcase was there and he was just out of the room for a moment, but it wasn’t. Instead there was the bottle of bleach, like I mentioned earlier. I thought it was strange but didn’t think much of it, or the post it note with 9/11 written on it in the middle of his desk. So I went back to the chemical storeroom, which connects between his classroom and mine, to finish inventory. That’s when I noticed the missing bottles of hydrochloric acid.”

“Yes, and then we established that if Mr. Ford had taken the acid and had bleach too, he could very well be planning to make chlorine gas.” Walt spoke quickly, trying to speed things up so the team could get on with the job.

“Toxic chlorine gas! “ Toby interjected. “It’ll basically liquefy your lungs.”

Principal Jones glared at Toby, but droned on, leading Happy to drop her forehead against Toby’s shoulder in frustration. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and glanced over at Sly to see him even more upset than before, giving him a pat on the back. On Happy’s other side, Walter was clenching his teeth in exasperation, and only until Paige reached for and squeezed his hand did he calm down some.

“And so I was saying, Mr. Ford was not in his room, but the bleach and the post it note were. As you all know, today is Tuesday the 8th, and Friday will be 9/11. With the knowledge of this information, I,” Jones said, emphasizing the ‘I,’ “contacted the local police last week and they did a preliminary investigation during which they discovered blueprints for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and also various heavily encrypted files on Mr. Ford’s computer. The local police were unable to decrypt and read them, so they contacted the Feds. Then, as you know, your handler Agent Gallo briefed your team on Friday.” He gestured to Cabe, who not so discreetly breathed a sigh of relief that Principal Jones had finally finished.

“Yes, Principal Jones,” Walter began, “my team has already developed a plan with the help of Ms. Olabamiji and we have been ready to begin for some time.”

“Walt!” Paige whispered and Walter turned to look at her with a petulant expression.

Principal Jones was looking at Walter as if he were an animal at a zoo, and Anita took over before things could get worse.

“Principal Jones, we’ve come up with a good plan. Walter, Paige, and her son Ralph are joining the tour I’m leading at 9:30 during second period, pretending to be interested in the school for Ralph. I will take them by the chemistry wing where we’ll stop by the lecture hall. My and Mr. Ford’s second period Advanced Chemistry classes will both be in there working on their Unit 1 review. Happy and Toby are acting as substitutes for both classes, since I will be leading the tour and Mr. Ford was fortuitously scheduled for professional development today until lunchtime.”

At the mention of their tasks, Happy’s face went a bit sullen while Toby grinned and rubbed his hands together.

“While the tour stops in the lecture hall, Happy will discreetly take my keys and excuse herself with the intention of going to my room. Sylvester and Cabe, who are posing as janitors, will be waiting near my room and when Happy arrives, she and Sylvester will go inside while Cabe keeps watch. Happy will check the inventory again to confirm the missing hydrochloric acid, and Sylvester will go through the storeroom to Mr. Ford’s classroom and work on decrypting the files. As soon as Happy finishes checking the chemicals, she will leave my keys with Sylvester so he can lock up when he finishes and she’ll return to the lecture hall. Then I’ll lead the tour by my classroom and Sylvester will return my keys to me. I’ll conclude the tour shortly after and as soon as second period ends at 10:35 we will all meet here again to discuss the results. The Feds will arrive around noon and hopefully arrest Mr. Ford, who will have returned by then.”

By the time Anita had finished running through their plan, Principal Jones looked impressed. “It seems you have thoroughly thought out this plan, Ms. Olabamiji.”

“When do things ever go to plan,” Toby muttered, and for once Happy and Sly, who were closest to him and had heard, agreed.

She smiled. “It was these guys, Jones.” Anita looked at all the people around her, watching smiles appear on their own faces. “Team Scorpion’s legit.” Paige mouthed a thank you and Anita nodded happily. “Principal Jones, if you don’t mind, I’ll go get these guys set up.”

He nodded somewhat sheepishly. “You all seem to know what you’re doing, so I’ll let you get to it.”

Anita led them all to a conference room nearby where she had kept janitor suits for Cabe and Sly in the meantime. Then she took Happy and Toby to the lecture hall. The three were walking down the hall silently when Happy spoke up.

“Hey Anita, thanks for what you said back there with Jones. I know we all appreciate it.” Happy gave her a quick nod.

“No problem at all. I know what it feels like to be alienated because of how you are, and it’s important to stand up to those who think it’s okay to do that.” Anita grinned as they stopped in front of the lecture hall.

“And that’s why you’re not department chair?” Toby looked at her sadly.

“Yes.” Anita sighed as she opened the door to the lecture hall. “I’ve been teaching here longer than Ford and when the previous department chair left, Jones clearly ignored me in favor of the middle aged, ex university professor, white guy even if I’m just as qualified. It’s been difficult to deal with, but I love teaching so I’ve managed. But assuming Ford is arrested, the position will be open again. I’m hoping this time I don’t get passed over.”

Happy and Toby stood there awkwardly, not knowing what exactly to say in response to Anita’s sudden openness as she pulled a sheet of paper out of a folder, but Toby nodded quickly when she turned back to them.

“Ok, here is the attendance sheet. Take roll and I’ll collect it when I come back around with the tour group. The students are just supposed to be working on their reviews today, and they should have their textbooks and materials with them. You two know some chemistry, right?”

Anita pointed at Happy and Toby and they nodded. “More than the average person,” Happy mentioned. “Though I know more than Doc over here.”

Toby scoffed but smiled. “We’ll be fine, Anita.” He paused for a moment and Anita started to leave but then he blurted out, “Make sure Walt and Paige don’t get too handsy. We are in a high school after all.”

Happy’s quick smack at the back of his head was immediate and he yelled out an ‘ouch’ as Anita laughed.

“Don’t worry, Toby, I’ll make sure of it.”

“You shouldn’t encourage him,” Happy called out once Anita turned to leave.

Anita paused and grinned again, “But you gotta have some fun when you’re a high school teacher.”

Happy didn’t know what to say and so she stood there, staring as Anita walked out the door, but Toby didn’t miss the way Happy’s eyes trailed up and down her retreating form.

“Don’t get any ideas, now.” He bumped her arm playfully, and Happy shook her head.

“Don’t worry, Doc.” Happy held up her left hand and shook it briefly, the light from ceiling above reflecting off of the diamond on her finger.

 

* * *

 

“Do you know how many germs there are in high schools?

Sly was rambling on and on, and Cabe would have booked it to another part of the school with his industrial sized dust mop already if it weren’t for the fact that he and Sylvester needed to stay close together.

Cabe didn’t answer and continued pushing around the dust he had already swept up.

“High schools are the worst for bacteria. Did you know that there are more bacteria per square inch on water fountain spigots and cafeteria plates than high school bathroom toilet seats? It’s awful.”

Cabe glanced up at the young genius, who was picking at a loose thread on his janitor’s uniform. “Kid, why did you volunteer to pose as a janitor then?”

Sly met Cabe’s eyes for a moment before turning back to his dust mop. “I don’t have to directly interact with high schoolers this way. That’s what Happy and Toby are having to do. I just have to push a broom around and then hack a guy’s computer.”

He looked up again to find a sympathetic smile on Cabe’s face.

A few seconds later, Sly moved a few feet over to start on a new group of linoleum tiles and Cabe thought he looked a tiny bit less tense, if that were possible. But then he mentioned another statistic and Cabe quietly sighed, pushing his dust mop to a section of floor slightly more farther away than necessary.

 

* * *

 

For as much as this was a tour they weren’t serious about, Walt and Paige watched Ralph engage with Anita every time there was an opportunity to do so. Whenever she asked a question, Ralph would answer and the parents in the other two families would frown at their own silent kids.

Paige slowed down a bit and Walter followed, creating a bit of distance between them and the rest of the group.

“Even if this is all pretend, Ralph really seems to be enjoying this a lot.” Paige smiled at Walt and looped her arm through his.

He nodded. “To her credit, Anita is a very engaging teacher and tour leader. She knows what she’s doing.”

“Ralph’s come a long way too.” Paige gazed over at her son, watching him lead the rest of the group behind Anita.

“He has you, Paige. You’ve done so much for him. For him and the rest of us.” Walter peered at her and she rested her head briefly on his shoulder.

“You all have done so much for him too, especially you, Walt.”

They noticed the others about to enter the lecture, so they quickened their pace again and reached the group. Anita opened the door, letting them all walk in before her, and Paige chuckled when she saw Happy and Toby.

Happy was sitting on the table at the front, surrounded by four or five students looking at their reviews and listening to Happy explain the solution to one of the problems. Toby had a larger audience of students focused on how he was writing out chemical symbols and percentages on parts of an outline of the human body drawn on the board.

The rest of the students looked over when Anita and the few families walked in. Happy glanced over momentarily, and after answering one last question from a young looking girl in front of her, she jumped off the table and walked over to Anita, who discreetly handed over her keys. Toby capped his marker and managed to quiet down all the students, much to Anita’s surprise. She started talking and Toby went over to Paige and Walter.

“Toby, do you have your comm in?” Walter asked, reaching up to his ear to adjust his.

Toby nodded, and for the next few minutes the three watched Anita talk about the quality of the school’s science programs.

 

* * *

 

Just a few minutes later, Happy and Sly were stepping into Anita’s classroom, heading for the chemical storeroom. By the time Sly had gone into the next room and gained access to Mr. Ford’s computer, Happy located the acid cabinet. It only took her a couple more minutes to account for the present and missing acid.

“Hey Walt?” Happy looked down at the plastic container containing the bottles of hydrochloric acid.

“Yes, what did you find, Happy?”

“There are two more bottles of hydrochloric acid missing.” Happy sighed. “Not good.”

In the lecture hall, Paige tore her eyes away from Anita’s presentation and looked at Walt worriedly. He pursed his lips before replying.

“Happy, go check to see if he has more bleach now.”

Happy shut the acid cabinet and walked out to where Sly was, going behind him and crouching down to see under the table. There were indeed two more bottles of bleach there, sitting next to the first one and by then they had no idea how many more Ford might have at home. Happy notified Walter, swallowing as she wondered how much death Mike Ford was planning in his mind. She heard Sly gasp then and peered over his shoulder at the monitor in front of him.

“Guys, listen, “ Sylvester said. “Ford has been working on an extensive program to take control of the hospital network, and from the other encrypted files it seems that he’s planning to disperse toxic amounts of the chlorine gas throughout the hospital on Friday.”

Sly glanced up at Happy behind him and found that the expression of worry on her face matched his own.

“Sly, something important must have happened at Cedars Sinai, like a birth or death or treatment or something. Look into his records, see what you find.” Toby was whispering quickly, trying to not disrupt Anita until Paige looked at him pointedly and then at the door.

As soon as he was out of the lecture hall, he saw Happy half walking and half running toward him. Then, Sly’s voice sounded in his ear again.

“Toby, Mike’s dad died at Cedars Sinai in October 2001.”

The sound of Sylvester typing rapidly was clear through the comms when Toby’s eyes went wide.

“Sly, did his dad die of silicosis or some other lung disease, and also were they in New York during 9/11?” Toby was drumming his fingers against the wall beside him quickly while Happy recalled the carelessly placed post it note with 9/11, the date for the upcoming Friday, written on it.

Toby continued, speaking faster than before. “If this is the case, Ford plans to destroy the lungs of every single person in that damn hospital where his own dad died from lung disease. And even if he did study computer science in college, his skills probably weren’t advanced enough to write a program of this caliber. That’s probably why it’s been so many years, he’s been learning.”

The next few seconds seemed to go by way too slow, and yet their brains still felt like they were in overdrive. But the moment Sly replied in the affirmative, more worry and nerves took over. Sly’s typing ceased and he went quiet. Happy was looking up at Toby with a slack jaw, eyebrows furrowed in concern. Toby had brought his hand up to his own mouth, closing his eyes for a moment. Back in the lecture hall, Paige looked at Walter immediately, taking his hand without a second thought. He squeezed hers right back. Even Cabe stopped pushing around dust, struck silent for a moment by the uncovered information. It wasn’t until he broke the silence over the comms that everyone sprang into action again.

“Kids, I’m calling the Feds right now.”

 

* * *

 

“Sometimes I wonder just how desensitized we’ve become, especially to death.”

Happy’s voice carried through the now empty lecture hall over to Toby, who was picking another pencil up off the floor. He sighed, walking over to her.

As soon as Cabe had called the Feds, they went straight to the professional development center instead of the high school to arrest Ford. Anita had concluded the tour earlier than intended and gone back to the main office with Cabe, Sylvester, Walter, Paige, and Ralph, leaving Happy and Toby to monitor the classes in the lecture hall until the bell rang.

Ford apparently had caved minutes into questioning, according to Cabe. A fixation on getting revenge the Feds reported, festering in Ford’s mind for almost two decades after experiencing both 9/11 and the death of his father in just a few weeks. A once stable person, riddled with trauma, pain, and obsession that drove him to plan what would have been an utterly tragic and chaotic event.

Toby reached for her hand as they closed the door to the lecture hall. “I’ve asked myself that before, especially after cases like this.” His tone was serious for once, pensive, and the air between them seemed to weigh heavily on their shoulders.

The soft sound of their footsteps was the only thing in the hallway during third period, and it was almost as if it were a moment of silence even though they had fortunately prevented the deaths of what would have been thousands of people in the hospital.

It lasted a few minutes until Happy spoke up again. “We saved the lives of thousands of people today, Doc, thousands of lives that could have ended prematurely and here we are just walking down a school hallway like nothing. We’ve saved a lot of lives before, but it feels different this time because it was related to 9/11.” Happy’s voice got quieter then. “I wonder what would be different if that guy had gotten help.”

Toby looked over at her, feeling a moment of sudden realization. “Why have we never talked about this? Not necessarily just us two, but all of us.”

Happy held his gaze before facing forward again, lost in her thoughts. “I don’t know, Doc.”

They trudged on through the school some more before she continued. “I guess,” Happy took a moment, as if what she was about to say were unpleasant, “It’s because of our job. We do what we’re told we need to do. But also, I guess we never felt the need to, literally. Maybe even Paige now. Half the time she has guns pointed at her, and really, it doesn’t seem to faze her much anymore.”

Before Happy’s brain had caught up to what was happening, Toby was pulling her sideways until they both landed on a couch in an empty study area.

“You know we have to be back soon, Doc.” She looked at him pointedly.

Toby waved carelessly towards the general direction of the main office. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll be back soon but this is important.” He took her hand in both of his this time and shifted his torso slightly to face her more.

“One, thank you for being open and sharing that with me, Hap, especially since we’ve never really talked about this.”

Happy’s head lolled back against the wall behind them, a tiny smirk appearing on her face at Toby’s words.

“But two,” this time Toby sounded more serious and she shifted her eyes from the ceiling directly above her to his face. “I think it’s also because of where we live. You know how so much shit happens in this country, hate crimes, murders, shootings, all of that. Logically, that must be a reason for this too.”

Happy nodded her head in agreement.

Toby continued. “At times I’ve wished I had a more emotional response to these kinds of things, and I’ve known death since I was young. Even though all that we’ve experienced helps with our jobs in a way, it’s probably not good.”

“I think we should tell the others about this.” Happy leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “And probably talk about it too.” She glanced down at her watch. “Also, we need to get back. The bell rings in twenty minutes.”

Toby nodded, and she stood up, pulling Toby up with her. It was not even a minute later, when they were just a few doors away from the office, that Toby called Happy’s name and she followed him confusedly into a smaller hall off the side of the one they were in.

“What are you doing?” She was standing in the middle of the hall before Toby slowly reached for her.

He didn’t say anything, but the way he quirked his eyebrows while gently pushing her back against the wall evinced his intention. The corners of her mouth started to pull upward as Toby leaned on his forearm against the wall beside her head, sidling up closer and closer to her until their hips were touching.

Happy started laughing as soon as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and let his fingers brush against her cheek. “Are you pretending we’re lovesick teenagers, Doc? Like in all those movies?”

“Well, we are in a high school and neither of us had normal high school experiences, so yeah, I’m going to make out with you in the hallway, sugar plum.”

“God, you’re so cheesy, Doc.” She couldn’t help but let out another laugh as he leaned in softly, touching his lips to hers once, twice before sliding his tongue against her bottom lip.

Happy had threaded her fingers up through the hair at the nape of his neck, resting her other hand on his chest when she pulled back for a second to catch her breath. Toby was gazing down at her with a glazed look in his eyes that probably matched her own.

“At least you don’t kiss like a teenager.” She was still a bit breathless but before Toby could say anything she kissed him again, more fervently than before. He let a hand slide down to her waist, almost teasing as his thumb moved back and forth over the cotton of her shirt.

Their little high school inspired make out session was cut short, though. Not even a minute later, a teacher almost walked past the hallway they were in but stopped short and cleared her throat.

“No PDA in the halls!” The teacher’s shrill voice cut through the air and Happy, startled, pushed Toby away. She looked in the direction of the teacher, but she had already walked by, the clicking of her high heels following her away.

Toby sighed at the interruption. “You know, I think I like being married adults more. Teachers don’t yell at us for PDA.”

Happy patted his chest. “We’ll be home soon enough, Doc.” Happy turned on her heel and headed back to the main hall, but Toby didn’t miss the quick wink she gave him as he followed her out.

“Hey, Happy?”

She slowed down just enough to glance at him. “Hmm?”

“About our conversation earlier, you know how I mentioned the horrible stuff that happens in life?” Happy nodded. “When bad things happen, it’s good to be with the people you care about and love too, you know? To feel something positive in light of the bad stuff that makes us not feel good.”

Toby wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and the moment they entered the conference room by the office he heard it.

“Love you, Toby.”

 

* * *

 

“Where were you two? Did you take your comms out?” Walter looked annoyed as Happy and Toby entered.”

Happy stuck her hand in her pocket, fishing out her and Toby’s comms. “We took them out and forgot to put them back in.” She handed them to Walter and he sighed. “We’ve been waiting for forty minutes.”

“We got...distracted,” Toby blurted out at the same time Happy spoke.

“We were having a good conversation.” She frowned at Toby. “Well, that too, but the conversation was more important. We all need to talk about it.”

“Talk about what?” Paige chimed in, interested to know what Happy of all people wanted the team to talk about.

Happy looked over at Toby and he explained. “We all should talk about how cases like today’s affect us.”

“And why would we do that?” Walter spoke up, crossing his arms in front of himself. “We haven’t done this before and we still all work well together.”

Paige stepped up beside him then, resting her hand on his shoulder. “Because you’re a human being, Walt, and you have feelings. You certainly can’t deny them now.” Paige kissed his cheek quickly and before turning to the other geniuses. “I think it’s a great idea.”

Walter huffed but dropped his arms and nodded. “I suppose if Paige says it’s a good idea, it probably is.”

“Ralph and I agree too.” Sylvester and Ralph were sitting at the table. Ralph was busy rolling around in his office chair but nodded when Sylvester spoke.

Cabe had been silent the whole time, but now that everyone else had acknowledged the idea of the conversation, he did too. “Well, kids, let’s get to the garage so we can get on with this talk. I think I’ll have a lot to say.”

Toby clapped him on the back as he headed toward the door. “I’m sure you will, Cabe.”

“Oh, and before we all head out, Principal Jones wanted to give his thank to you all and let you know that Ms. Olabamiji was promoted to department chair in light of what happened.” Cabe looked proudly at all the people around him, before heading toward the door himself, keys jingling in hand.

“You all did good today, Team Scorpion.”


End file.
